THE native aptitude of Americans for the sea is abundantly proved in the history of the American Navy. The history of England has not been more wonderful in its proofs of national genius for maritime operations than that of the United States. In the War of the Revolution there were no twodecked American frigates, properly so called; and yet the small ships in use, imperfectly equipped, with insignificantly light metal compared with their adversaries, manned with hastily collected crews, gave important aid in that great struggle. The early exploits of John Paul Jones, Dale, Manley, Barry, Nicholson, Barney, Rathburne, and Biddle, in their active little ships, cutting off English transports, carrying the war into English seas, and by alertness and audacity making up for want of force and organization-these should not be lost sight of, for they were the first efforts of a power that has since then contested the empire of the seas with Great Britain herself. The actual Navy of the Revolution-an emanation from the sea-sank back as suddenly into the sea. Nothing was left of it. For the exigencies of the naval war with France, and for the Algerine and Tripolitan wars, new ships had to be built, and an entirely new system organized. Then arose another brood of naval heroes, who, almost by their individual exertions, redeemed our country from the imbecility into which it sank when it paid tribute to the Dey of Algiers, and was powerless to reclaim its hundreds of American prisoners rotting in his dungeons. The names of Decatur, Preble, Truxton, Somers, Barron, Bainbridge, Chauncey, Hull, Porter, are now Increased Popularity of the Navy. 39 with us as household words. Some of these continued to be names of inspiration in the two-years' contest of the War of 1812, in which others of equal if not greater celebrity-such as Lawrence, Stewart, Perry, and Macdonough—were added to the splendid constellation. In the War of 1812, our Navy for the first time assumed something like organization and concentrated efficiency. But at the beginning of the War of .1812 we were worse off than in 1801, at the end of the Revolutionary War. We had actually but seventeen cruising vessels, nine of which were frigates; while Great Britain had more than a thousand ships of war, of which between seven and eight hundred were efficient cruisers. But new frigates were at once built, immense activity was infused into the Navy, and the government devoted its special attention to this department. And the Navy also became at that time more popular, and was sought for by the youth of the best families in the country. Many of these were introduced almost at once from the quiet of home to the horrors and carnage of the naval combat. "Perhaps one half of the lieutenants in the service at the peace of 1815 had gone on board ship for the first time within six years from the declaration of the war, and many of them within three or four. So far from the midshipmen having been masters and mates of merchantmen, as was reported at the time, they were generally youths that first quitted the ease and comforts of the paternal home when they appeared on the quarter-deck of the man-of-war."* Young Foote might be numbered among these. He went from the bosom of well-regulated family life in the quiet country village to the hardships and rough realities of the naval service. It is true, his youth had fallen upon reactionary, peaceful times; but doubtless he would have been all the more ardent to join the Navy had there been hard fight *Cooper's Naval History, vol. ii., p. 395. ing and the chance of winning distinction. As it was, the first years of his sea-life were spent in long cruises (like the one we are now to relate), which have in them little of the stir of warlike achievement, but which are, on the contrary, as this one proved to be, in the immediate interest of peace. On the 4th of November, 1837, Lieutenant Foote was assigned to the East India squadron, under command of Commodore Read, in the sloop-of-war John Adams, and Captain Wyman, in the capacity of first-lieutenant, or executive officer. The John Adams was an old ship that had done good service in the Barbary wars, when she was commanded by that able officer, Captain John Rodgers. She was built at Charleston, South Carolina, and underwent many changes. She was constructed for a small frigate, carrying 24 twelves on her gun-deck; was then cut down to a sloop; next raised upon to be a frigate; and finally once more cut down. It is said that the ship was built by contract, and that the original contractor let out one side of her to a sub-contractor, who, in a spirit of economy, so much reduced her moulds that the ship had actually several inches more beam on one side than the other. As a consequence, she both bore her canvas and sailed better on one tack than on the other. The John Adams was rebuilt entirely, and became one of the most beautiful ships in the Navy.* Ships acquire a certain kind of personality, and through every spar, timber, and bolt there seems to run an individual life. Thus the old Constitution was called "a lucky ship;" and she never lost this character. "In all her service, as well before Tripoli as in this war (1812), her good-fortune was remarkable. She never was dismasted, never got ashore, or scarcely ever suffered any of the usual accidents of the sea. Though so often in battle, no very serious slaughter ever took place on board of her. One of her commanders was wounded, *Cooper's Naval History, vol. ii., p. 31, note. Voyage Round the World. 4I and four of her lieutenants were killed, two on her own decks, and two in the Intrepid; but, on the whole, her entire career had been that of what is usually called 'a lucky ship.' Her fortune, however, may perhaps be explained by the simple fact that she had always been well commanded. In her last two cruises she had probably possessed as fine a crew as ever manned a frigate. They were principally New England men: and it has been said of them that they were almost qualified to fight the ship without her officers."* The John Adams had no such brilliant record as the "old Ironsides," but had been nevertheless a serviceable and fortunate ship; and the name of this vessel serves to connect the different epochs of our naval history, and to bring down the past into the present, as Admiral Foote himself unites the old and the new, and forms a connecting link between the ancient and modern periods of the American Navy. He belongs to both periods, although his most famous actions lie in the circle of very recent events. The voyage of the John Adams, in which we are now particularly interested, was really one of the circumnavigation of the globe. They sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to Bombay, Canton, Manilla, the Sandwich and Society Islands, the coast of Chili, and doubled Cape Horn; during which cruise the ship was engaged in an attack on the pirates of Sumatra, and especially in an assault upon the Asiatic towns of Quallahbattoo and Arbucloo, burning the latter, the inhabitants of which had treacherously murdered the captain of an American pepper-ship. But the chief interest of this cruise is concentrated in the visit to the Sandwich Islands, on which occasion Lieutenant Foote, now thirty-two years old and a man of matured character, displayed a prompt energy and a loyalty to cherished principles of duty. Many English ships had in previous years exerted a most * Cooper's Naval History, vol. ii., p. 378. deleterious influence upon the natives of the islands by introducing intemperance and other vices; but in July, 1839, Captain Laplace, of the French frigate L'Artemise, arrived at Honolulu. He came in the interest of the Romish mission, representing the queen of Louis Philippe as a patron of the missions of her Church, and saying that he had come by order of the French government to put an end to the ill-treatment the French had suffered at the islands. He demanded that the Roman Catholic faith should be granted all the privileges that the Protestant faith enjoyed; that the King of the Sandwich Islands should make a special treaty with France, and should deposit in the hands of the captain of L'Artemise twenty thousand dollars as a guarantee of his future conduct; and that if these and other equally peremptory conditions were not complied with, Captain Laplace declared his intention to make immediate war upon the islands. He sent letters to the English and American consuls, informing them of his intention to commence hostilities in case his terms were not agreed to, and offered an asylum to the citizens of the two nations if war should arise; but in the letter to the American consul was this singular language: "I do not include in this class the individuals who, although born, it is said, in the United States, make a part of the Protestant clergy of this archipelago, direct the counsels of the king, influence his conduct, and are the true authors of the insults given by him to France. For me they compose a part of the native population, and must undergo the unhappy consequences of a war which they shall have brought on this country." He referred, of course, to the American missionaries, who, for the reasons alleged, were not to be recognized and treated as American citizens.* The upshot of all this was that the king was forced to com * Dr. Anderson's History of the Sandwich Islands Mission, p. 159. |
